The Soapbox

The Soapbox allows you to stand up and have a rant, tell a bad joke, complain about someone or post stuff that that may not be appropriate for reading at work and/or isn't strictly IT industry related. It is rated M. Do not post anything offensive or which breaches the Terms of Use. Do not post programming questions (use the programming forums for that) and please don't post ads.

The SoapBox is not for flame wars, personal vendettas, or for grinding your axe. Trolling will not be tolerated. Anything inappropriate for this forum will be deleted immediately.

"I controlled my laughter and simple said "No,I am very busy,so I can't write any code for you". The moment they heard this all the smiling face turned into a sad looking face and one of them farted. So I had to leave the place as soon as possible."- Mr.Prakash One Fine Saturday. 24/04/2004

They are all the same for some part or other: my Mercedes Air Mass Sensor failed a year ago - £20~£30 (40~60 $NZ) with most manufacturers. No, no - it's integrated into the plastic housing of the engine management system, so that'll be £1000 (2000 $NZ) and three weeks because it has to be programmed for the specific car at the factory.

Or a third of that and two day turnround if I send the current one to a company in England... Decisions, decisions...

And the English company warranted it for two years, where Mercedes is only the one year on parts.

There are times when I wish we were back in the era of carbs, and points instead of total engine management - at least you stood a chance of fixing it yourself...

If you get an email telling you that you can catch Swine Flu from tinned pork then just delete it. It's Spam.

There are times when I wish we were back in the era of carbs, and points instead
of total engine management - at least you stood a chance of fixing it
yourself...

Same. I used to work on all my motorcycles myself back in the early 80's but as time went by you needed too many specialist tools and stuff. And looking under the hood of a modern car is just too scary. Never mind the lack of room to access anything.

If your neighbours don't listen to The Ramones, turn it up real loud so they can.

Had a similiar issue here in South Africa, although with a jeep. A pin just behind the keybarrel on my ignition. Jeep said that they do not supply the pin as a part and I had to purchase a knew stearing column, R11000. I ended up taking the warn out pin to an engineering place and they machind a new one for R250.

His response: "..we used to stock the o-rings, but they were de-listed approx. 18 months ago as they proved an unreliable repair and so the next step is replacing the oil cooler assemby."

I struggle to see how replacing buggered o-rings could be "unreliable" unless..
(a) that wasn't the problem in the first place OR
(b) the Nissan mechanics are f***wits who can't manage to seat the o-ring's properly.

Anyway, my guy fixed it and my driveway remains clean.

If your neighbours don't listen to The Ramones, turn it up real loud so they can.

In hindsight, my Facebook post should probably have said "I've blown the head gasket on my 1998 Ford XR3" rather than "I've just f***ed a fourteen year old escort".
The police still haven't seen the funny side of it, and they've confiscated my laptop.
However, the news isn't all bad - the wife has gone to stay with her mother.

I was about to comment that your joke would work if they stopped making Ford Escorts less than 15 years ago.... but a quick check on Wikipedia reveals they made them until 2000!! I thought they replaced them with Orions or something...